Introduction by By Alison O’Sullivan, chair, National Children’s Bureau
It is three years since the Care Experienced Conference took place at Liverpool Hope University on 26 April 2019. The event was the culmination of more than two years’ work by dozens of people: a mix of care-experienced people with a variety of backgrounds in commerce, academia and care roles and a small number of professional allies.
The day was attended by more than 160 people aged 14 to 82. Some had travelled from as far afield as Australia. Such was the level of support that some young people in care sent in their pocket money to help to fund it.
Opportunities were created for care-experienced people of all ages to share their views and celebrate the richness and diversity of the care-experienced community and their achievements. Contributions to every session were captured in two detailed reports published in July 2019 and presented to the Secretary of State for Education. The hope was that government would act on the key messages, which included the need for more love in the care system, the need to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing and the importance of ensuring those with care experience have a voice and are listened to.
There was interest from across the sector in the findings from the conference, so a pledge based on the top 10 messages was devised to translate those messages into concrete actions to improve things for children (see below).
Crucially those signing up to the pledge promise to apply its key principles to the way services are planned and delivered, use their position as leaders to change things for the better and ensure care-experienced young people provide feedback on how well the pledge is upheld.
A diverse range of organisations have since used the pledge. Some wanted to build on what they were doing already, some said the pledge was useful to give impetus to work they wanted to start, while others thought the pledge could be built into the nuts and bolts of service design and commissioning.
Other organisations, including the Royal College of Nursing and Association of Social Justice asked for support to raise awareness of the needs of care-experienced people, taking the pledge into health and criminal justice settings. Last year – to mark the second anniversary of the conference – a knowledge exchange event was convened by Research in Practice to share the learning from places who had implemented the pledge.
We have not had the resource to systematically track its impact, but it is clear the pledge has been used by local authorities, children in care councils, independent sector providers, commissioners and others. It remains there to be used by others.
The messages have also influenced wider dialogue and debate. Early findings from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care echo the conference’s top 10 messages and the same issues are also prominent in submissions from several children’s charities.
Those who have adopted the pledge have shown it makes a real difference. But it is important those using the pledge do not see it as a “pick and mix”: the full range of issues highlighted by the top 10 messages must be addressed and the spirit of the pledge and all it represents must drive better practice.
Surely it is time government took forward the messages from the Care Experienced Conference. The pledge is a ready-made vehicle for doing the right thing. Let’s hope the independent care review gives fresh momentum to this work and at last care-experienced people can begin to feel that not only have their voices been listened to, but that something has changed as a result.
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More on the Care Experienced Conference from www.info822785.wixsite.com/careexpconf
THE CARE PLEDGE
We pledge in our written policies, procedures and practices to take clear steps to ensure all the services we deliver will demonstrably:
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Promote more love in the care system, including displays of positive physical affection.
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Ensure care-experienced people are regarded and treated as individuals worthy of respect and to promote that respect wherever we can.
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Ensure relationships are seen as central to all our policies and procedures to support children in care and care-experienced people.
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Take clear steps to improve stability and continuity in the lived experiences of people in care.
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Work with our partners and young people to raise awareness of need and improve support for the mental health and wellbeing of children in care and care-experienced people in our local area.
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Recognise in our daily work that the impact of care experience does not end at 18 or 21 or even 25 and review our practice to remove age restrictions on support wherever we can.
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Protect, promote and, where necessary, rebuild family and community connections and help those young people for whom we are responsible to understand their personal history.
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Make sure young people in our care are routinely engaged, consulted and have a say in their own lives.
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Ensure young people in our care are properly and fully informed of their rights and offer advocacy to ensure they receive them.
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Listen to the voice of children in care and care-experienced people of all ages and always consult them about changes to services and support.
THE CARE PLEDGE SHOULD BE THE BOTTOM LINE FOR PROFESSIONALS
By Ian Dickson
If asked “What does the care pledge mean to you?” my response is: nothing – it is what the care pledge is intended to deliver that means so much.
I was in care for 16 years in the 1950s and 60s. Quality of care was poor and abuse rife. I know that is true: I saw and experienced it daily. Negative attitudes towards care-experienced people, discrimination and prejudice were also commonplace and largely unchallenged. They are still around but progress has been made to improve care with the introduction of national minimum standards and robust regulation.
The introduction of standards, underpinned by regulation, was not a bureaucratic imposition. It reflected a bold statement of values and a commitment to improve the lives of children in care. I played some part in that transition in my 40-year career as a social worker and regulator. If only we’d had common standards when I was a child. Life for me and so many more could have been much happier.
Reform does not evolve spontaneously. It flourishes when a shared commitment to do the best we can for children coalesces around a shared understanding of what the best can look like. The aims and recommendations that evolved from the Care Experienced Conference in 2019 offered a shared undertaking among care-experienced people of all ages. The pledge presents these ideals in a form that can be understood and delivered by local authorities and social care organisations. That is why it is important.
The recommendations from the conference will not form another set of tick-box requirements prepared by social work managers and civil servants. They are a representation of the combined wisdom, life experience and creativity of ordinary care-experienced people in all their glorious diversity. They are critically important and must be heard. The question for local authorities and other organisations is not: “Should we implement the pledge in full?” It is: “How could we justify not doing so?”
I want to see the pledge used as the “bottom line” by professionals in assessing and delivering quality care to children in care and care leavers. But it must be a dynamic process that routinely refers back to the Care Experienced Conference reports, aims and recommendations and asks care-experienced people: “Is this still good enough for you?”
LIVERPOOL
PLEDGE HELPED US STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS WITH CARE PROVIDERS
By Wendy Collins, senior commissioning manager, St Helens Borough Council
According to Liverpool’s most famous sons The Beatles, love is all you need. Participants at the Care Experienced Conference, which took place in Liverpool, told us more love was needed in care but so was affection, respect and relationships.
I attended the conference and one participant told me they were 21 years old before they received a spontaneous hug from an adult, a friend’s mum. They said they didn’t know what to do back. Our children in care deserve love and instinctive affection – this was message number one.
As a group of Liverpool City Region local authorities, we translated the key messages from the conference into a set of values to create a “Shared Pledge” between all six councils and the residential and foster care providers we work with.
Our Partner Provider Arrangement is a sub-regional commissioning framework for children’s residential and foster care placements and went live in December 2020. It ensures fair, transparent and non-discriminatory competition and is the primary route for identifying local homes for our children.
We wanted to work more closely with our providers and ensure the needs of children and young people in care were front and centre so we included the Shared Pledge in each provider’s contractual terms and conditions. Both the lead local authority and provider must sign the Shared Pledge before the contract starts and are contractually bound to deliver its values.
This partnership approach has strengthened our relationship with providers. It has increased engagement and two-way communication and issues are raised and addressed more quickly.
Through quarterly forums for providers and commissioners we have been able to develop a culture of shared learning. We have invited care-experienced individuals to these events to share their experiences and have commissioned care-experienced trainers to deliver training to improve the quality of referrals and promote a more outcomes-focused referral process.
The pledge also gave us the opportunity to start changing our language to break down stigma and stereotypes.
Regular meetings with specific providers give them the opportunity to raise practice issues at an earlier stage. Providers say these meetings have given them the confidence to be honest and open with local authorities.
Our expectation is providers will work more closely over time, sharing best practice, to ensure children have the best possible care wherever they live. We have been holding regular transition events with partner providers to consider the needs of children who would like to move from residential care into foster families to try to make that happen.
Some of the people I met at the Care Experienced Conference are sadly no longer with us but their legacy, and the wish from all who attended, is one of hope that all who hear their messages will make things better for children now and in the future.
NORTH YORKSHIRE
NO AGE LIMITS MEANS WE ARE ALWAYS HERE FOR CARE LEAVERS
By Jonny Hoyle, child permanence and family reunification development lead, North Yorkshire County Council
Having supported the Care Experienced Conference and attended the event North Yorkshire County Council knew the pledge fitted well with our practice model, which has relationships at its core, and it made sense for us to sign up.
In recent decades the age limit for leaving care services has increased from 18 to 21 and now to 25. While this shows progress, the care-experienced community have pointed out that parents don’t generally stop talking to their children at 25. When there are bumps in the road, most people can turn to their parents for advice and guidance. Many care leavers worry about turning 25 purely because it signals an end to their right for statutory support.
In North Yorkshire we have a significant number of care-experienced employees who come through our apprenticeship programmes and into permanent positions in our workforce. Some of them attended the conference and worked with one of our managers who is also care experienced to think about what we might do differently. We decided to get rid of the age limit our care leavers can come back to us for information, advice and guidance. Instead if you are a North Yorkshire care leaver we are “Always Here” for you.
What this means in practical terms is our relationship with our care leavers changes over time in the same way most young people’s does with their parents. By the time young people are nearing 25, our ambition is they are living their lives, succeeding and progressing and they occasionally call to let us know how they’re getting on. It might be that they’re getting married and want to invite their worker or they’ve had a baby. For some, life will bring more difficulties and we want our care leavers to know they can pick up the phone, message us or email and we’ll be there to help them.
We have coupled this support with an offer of “second chance learning” which means young people can gain key qualifications like English and Maths from our Adult Learning and Skills service and an offer from our Early Help service with support available around parenting skills and emotional wellbeing for care-experienced parents.
Our Always Here offer has been really well received by our care leavers and staff, neither of whom want to end their relationships purely based on age.
We are going to capture the key things people talk to us about post 25 and hope we can use this learning to identify and act on common themes. We also want to strengthen our early help offer to care-experienced parents and maybe even create a corporate grandparenting offer too.
GREATER MANCHESTER
A CORE OFFER FOR CARE LEAVERS GUARANTEES SUPPORT
By Stewart Tod, senior project manager, Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Greater Manchester has taken on board the key messages from the Care Experienced Conference and in November 2019, we launched the Greater Manchester Care Leaver Guarantee.
The guarantee is an ambitious commitment to improve opportunities for young people that leave care across Greater Manchester. In the past year around 700 young people aged 17 and 18 left care and became entitled to support as a care leaver.
Partnership working has been key to making the guarantee a success and Greater Manchester Combined Authority and its Care Leaver Trust Board have worked with the authority’s 10 councils and partners from the voluntary and community sector, health, housing and education to deliver against five key themes.
These are ensuring care leavers are better prepared and supported to live independently; have improved access to education, employment and training; experience stability in their lives and feel safe and secure; receive improved access to health support; and achieve financial stability.
A core local offer for care leavers was developed in collaboration with young people and care leaving teams and has been funded and delivered by the 10 councils. It provides all care leavers with the same provision regardless of where they live within Greater Manchester. Care leavers are entitled to a free bus pass and reduced cost tram travel across the region as well as free prescriptions. They are exempt from council tax and receive an allowance for birthdays, festivals and graduation. Other commitments include ensuring care leavers are a priority group in our hospitals, community health and mental health services.
Since 2020, care leavers up to the age of 21 have been entitled to an Our Pass travel card with over 700 cards issued. This means care leavers have been able to make thousands of free journeys to access education, employment and training.
Greater Manchester Housing Providers – a partnership of 24 housing providers – has increased the supply of accommodation for care leavers. Moss Care St Vincent’s Housing has introduced long term tenancies in partnership with the National House Project model and further schemes are being delivered in eight of the 10 local authorities. In addition, Bolton at Home is piloting six properties for care leavers with additional support, working with young people to give them the skills they need to look after their homes, cook, budget and connect with the community.
Despite the successes so far, there are some areas that require further work.
We want to improve access to the offer for care-experienced young people in prison and promote it though an app to boost overall access. Another key goal is to improve access to mental health provision for care leavers. New alliances will be forged with partners and businesses to deliver against our commitments.
The ultimate test of our success will be whether care leavers tell us their lives have been changed for the better as a result of our work. That is our continued hope and mission.
